Ombudsman secures 2 convictions vs. erring gov’t employees

Central Office of the Ombudsman Building, Agham Road, North Triangle Diliman, Quezon City
(Photo: Wikipedia/Judgefloro)

MANILA—The Office of the Ombudsman (Ombudsman) has secured two convictions in two separate cases involving erring employees from Pasig City and the Department of Education (DepEd).

In a five-page ruling written by Pasig City Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) Branch 70 Presiding Judge Marina Gaerlan-Mejorada, accused Feliciano Toledo II, former Education Program Specialist II of the DepEd-Bureau of Physical Education (BPE), was convicted of perjury for falsely claiming in his Personal Data Sheet (PDS) that he was a college graduate.

Ombudsman prosecutors presented documents to prove that Toledo was not a Bachelor of Arts major in Economics graduate and that he was enrolled in San Sebastian-Recoletos only for one semester in 1977 to 1978.

Toledo was sentenced to a jail term ranging from four months to one year.

On the other hand, Pasig City MTC Branch 71 Presiding Judge Honorio Ebora Jr.

also found Francisco Sunga, former Barangay Treasurer of San Joaquin, Pasig City, guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Presidential Decree 1445, or the “Government Auditing Code of the Philippines.”

During trial, it was established that Sunga used improvised receipts bought from a bookstore to acknowledge the receipt of payments for barangay clearance, permits, docket fees and all other fees collected from establishments within the barangay.

The accused was ordered to pay a fine of PHP1,000.